Horse race? Sullivan County mayoral hopefuls Angie Stanley and Zane Vanover answer Kiwanis forum questions

KINGSPORT — Are a "show horse" and "work horse" running in this year's political race to become Sullivan County mayor? The candidate whose opponent referred to her as "show horse" is trying to take credit for something done while he was not a county commissioner, adding that she as a commissioner sponsored a resolution on the matter. The issue emerged Friday in answers to Kiwanian questions for the two Republican hopefuls, Sullivan County school board Vice Chairwoman Angie Stanley and Sullivan County Commissioner and Speaker Pro Tempore Zane Vanover. The Kiwanis Club of Kingsport held the forum Friday at the Food City Press Room. "You have to decide if you want a show horse or a work horse," Vanover told the group at the end of the forum. "I'm the work horse." He said he will work to see the future generations of Sullivan County plant their faith and "grow hope high," not have city-county division but have leadership that listens with the "door always open." In Stanley's closing remarks that immediately followed Vanover's closing remarks, she said voters should do their homework, including examining mailers and campaign literature closely. "A lot of stuff on there is false," Stanley told the civic club members. In Vanover's campaign literature, he says that "GOOD THINGS ARE GROWING," including a 15% teacher pay raise and school resource officers in every school. However, Stanley said in 2018 she first worked with then-Sheriff Wayne Anderson on the concept of an SRO program in every school, and she eventually sponsored the resolution accepting recurring grants. Vanover was not on the commission yet, she said. He joined in 2022. After the forum, Stanley confirmed she was referring to his campaign literature, specifically the three-fold, double-sided cardboard item. She served eight years as county commissioner and narrowly lost a challenge to County Mayor Richard Venable in 2022 after not seeking reelection to her commission seat. He is not seeking reelection after 16 years as mayor, non-consecutively. Stanley was elected to the school board two years ago, and the board chose her as vice chairwoman last year. She also touted her 36 years running a beauty salon with 15 current employees. She said she sponsored the resolution for the SROs and funding for one per school is from renewable annual grants from Tennessee. Vanover said that the items touted in the literature, also including five new Emergency Medical Service stations; better pay for sheriff's deputies and body cameras; protecting teachers from "woke" pronouns; helping draw a new airline at Tri-Cities Airport, where he serves on the Airport Authority; and having the "fasted growing economy in Tennessee" either occurred on his watch as a commissioner or are things he and the current commission have voted to continue. The 15-year Sullivan County teacher, businessman and farmer said he has the experience and connections to be a good mayor. He also has the support of Venable, who narrowly won over Stanley four years ago. Also in her closing remarks, Stanley said she and her husband of 25 years, who works at Eastman Chemical Co., are both "blue collar" people. "I've always been a blue-collar worker," Stanley said of her career in cosmetology. "I never married into money." Vanover's wife, Kay, owned the Cleek Dairy Farm, today called the Cleek Farms, and Vanover during an answer said he helped bring jobs and economic development to Sullivan County and Kingsport by bringing the Walgreens and Weigels on the north side of of Stone Drive, on the west and east sides, respectively, of the intersection of New Beason Well Road and Stone Drive. That is roughly across the road from the family farm. "I never married into wealth," Stanley told the group. Vanover after the forum said he and his wife of 47 years, Kay, are not Vanderbilts. "We're not a wealthy family. We're not going to starve," Vanover said. "I've brought in jobs. I've brought in businesses," Vanover said of Walgreens and Weigels. EDUCATION FUNDING The two agreed that the commission should not cut education funding for city and county schools, said sales tax revenues that are uncertain shouldn't supplant more steady property tax revenue and pledged eventually to move schools back to more property tax rate funding. In the event of a "recession" causing a reduction in sales tax revenues, "we're hurting in our education systems," Stanley said. Vanover said, "We need to reallocated funding from education from sales tax to property tax," adding that would be one of the first things to work on if elected. "You can't gamble on education." COMMUNICATIONS Vanover said the county needs to ramp up its communications and tweak its website and boost social media posts. "We don't tell our story very well in Sullivan County," Vanover said, adding that if elected he'd like to attend "forums like this all the time." Stanley agreed, repeating her campaign mantra of transparency in government and calling for at least monthly meetings among the mayor and department heads. "That's not being done right now," she said. Like Vanover, she called for a more "internet friendly" county. Both also said the county didn't do enough to explain the property tax reappraisal year. Some properties increased markedly in tax value, double or triple, Stanley said. OF DRUG ADDICTION, BALLAD AND BUSINESS FRIENDLY Among Vanover's responses, he said the biggest challenges facing county government are drug addiction, a need for infrastructure updates and improvements, and more public water and sewer service in rural areas, adding that good schools, affordable housing and infrastucture are needed. Stanley said her children, ages 22 and 23, "can't buy a house right now" because of the prices in the housing market. "We can't just react to it (growth), we've got to plan for it," Vanover said in his closing remarks. Stanley basically agreed with Vanover on the drug abuse issue, saying that opioid abuse is a critical issue and cited her 2021 sponsorship of a resolution to use the opioid lawsuit funds toward a regional drug recovery facility. Further, she called for a "regional mental health facility" in Northeast Tennessee instead of having area jails and hospitals as defacto mental health facilities. Stanley also said she supported infrastructure improvements and a "repeal" of the Tennessee approval of Ballad Health operating as a hospital monopoly. She said that would help get nurses pay increased and health care costs down. The two candidates — one of whom will become the presumptive mayor based on May 5 results because no other candidates will be on the Aug. 4 ballot other than the primary winner — also agreed they would work with city leaders on water and sewer extensions and lobbying the state for transportation improvements. Without an environment hospitable to business, Vanover said, "That's when jobs go to Mexico, Mississippi or somewhere else." Stanley said she supports cutting through the red tape and being business friendly. MERGE ANIMAL SHELTERS The two also agreed that Petworks, the Kingsport animal shelter, and the Sullivan County Animal Shelter should merge in some way. "People in Kingsport shouldn't have to pay for two animal shelters," Vanover said, later saying that was one of the first things he would push for as mayor to be "our first win." Stanley said, "We need to bring people together to save taxpayers' money." One of the questions, in its prelude, said that Kingsport and Sullivan County combined spend about $1.2 million a year on two shelters, while comparably sized Johnson City and Washington County spent only $550,000 combined. The County Commission pulled out of Petworks in 2018. In addition, they agreed that Opportunity Zones grants and funding need to be used to their full advantage. "One thing I worry about is younger people trying to buy their first home," Vanover said. They also said they would work to facilitate expansion of water and sewer service from the cities to non-city areas of the counties. "When the cities thrive, the county thrives," Stanley said. Vanover said, "We should be in the sewer business," referring to the sewer trunk lines the county funded in the 1990s. REDUCE COMMISSION SIZE Also, they agreed that the 24-member commission should be reduced in size. Stanley suggested mirroring the seven school board districts but have two members from each district instead of a hodge podge of one-seat, two-seat and three-seat commission districts in the current system. The first time she voted on reducing the size, she voted against it, but the second time she said she voted for it. "Smaller government is better government," Vanover said. "You can't get 24 people to agree on where to eat." He said neighboring Washington County went from 25 to 15 commissioners, and he would be good with 14 or 15 members. "The mayor can't waive a magic wan and make it happen," Vanover said, but added that he believes the relationships and experience he has would help him convince the commission to make that move. QUALIFICATIONS As for qualifications, Vanover said forming, growing and maintaining relationships are key. "Listening is the No. 1 trait a leader has to have," he said, adding that communications is also important. For instance, he said it was a hard sell to get the commission to approve a grant writer position and program at a cost of $70,000 22 months ago, but that position has "brought in $3.5 million." As a commissioner from 2014 to 2022, Stanley said her experience also includes working with the Tennessee County Services as president for three years. As a hair salon owner, she said she daily hears the everyday concerns of the public. SUPPORT TOURISM Vanover said the plan to put a private company in charge of tourism development in Sullivan County, using half the hotel-motel tax for that purpose and keeping the other half with the Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association, would bear fruit. "The private sector seems to always be able to do more with less," Vanover said. "Tourism's going to be a big part of our future," he said. "We don't want to be (top Tennessee tourism money generator) Sevier County, but we'd like to have a little bit of Sevier County." Stanley said supporting and expanding tourism is important, citing the major league baseball and college football games bringing in visitors to Bristol Motor Speedway and the region. The online version of this article at timesnews.net has more information about the forum. A video of the forum, taken by Kiwanis Club of Kingsport Publicity Committee Chairwoman Donna Sade, is to be on the club's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/channel/UCNNcK6xVcTiIMwZK97ydYLA.